New Haven Refugee Agency Speaks Out On Expected Immigration Ban

Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services will welcome a family of five Syrian refugees to New Haven, Connecticut. They arrive the same week President Donald Trump is expected to halt the entire refugee resettlement program and ban Syrian refugees.

The expected order would temporarily suspend any immigration from several predominantly Muslim countries, including Syria.

And, it would halt the refugee resettlement program for more than 100 days, until new vetting procedures are put in place.

Chris George, executive director of Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services in New Haven, says five agencies currently vet people seeking asylum.

“The information is shared with other countries. Names and data are passed through all sorts of databases and terrorist watch lists. It takes forever for refugees to get here. So the screening process is already extreme. I don’t know how they plan to make it any tougher.”

George says IRIS has sent out a petition asking people to call the White House and oppose the order.